Stranger than Fiction: Zombie High
by Sora8195
Summary: This story isn't really about highschool, of the dead, but it's the only one i found close to the story i'm writing. the people & places in this story are real, but the storyline is purely fictional. It's not a story for kids, as it has blood, gore, violence, death, tragedy, and lots of cursing, because, yes, most of us are high school students. if you like, comment. if not, don't.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

"I stayed up late the night before everything I knew came to an end."

Never once did I think we'd be fighting every day for our survival. Not like this. We were just kids. High school kids at that. None of these kids were even ready to go out and face the world yet. Not this way. I'd never thought it would come down to this. Then again, no one did. This came upon us like an atom bomb. Not enough time to prepare for it. Then again, how could you prepare for this? What's happening, you might ask? Only the worst possible thing for mankind. Something we only thought was possible in movies, or video games. But we could've never been more wrong. And we were too late to act. So now, we are the run, struggling for our survival. Every day could be our last. Every decision we make could either mean we live for another day, or we die. It's as simple as that. It shouldn't be, though. Not for kids our age. Or anyone for that matter. But if we don't all pull together to fight this, we will all surely die. No one can have the mindset of "Every man for himself." Because they may get their wish. But alone, they have even less of a chance for survival, if any at all. This apocalypse is destroying humanity as we speak. And the worst part is, no one ever saw it coming. And now, hanging by a mere thread, humanity has to pull together to survive this. This zombie apocalypse. How did it all start, you might ask? I'll get to that later in the story. But first, you have to ask yourself this: Do you have the heart for it? If so, then by all means, keep on reading. This may be your last chance for survival. It could very well be the last hope for humanity. But if you don't, that's fine too. Just know that you have been warned. So keep living a normal life. Who knows, you might survive if you don't read this. But you have less of a chance than if you do read this.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1

It all started on a Wednesday. It was close to the end of my senior year. We had about three days of school left. Usually on a Wednesday, we start school at 9:00, an hour later than the rest of the week. But since it was the last week of school, it started at 8:00. I forgot, and set my alarm for 8:00. I woke up at 7:45. It usually takes me about 20 minutes to walk to school, since I live about a mile away.

"Oh shit!" I said, jumping out of bed. "I'm late!"  
I grabbed my black Marine Corps sleeveless muscle shirt, black cargo shorts, white Jordans, and green cover I received during SLS (Summer Leadership School). I spent a week out in Flagstaff at a National Guard base, Camp Navajo, with JROTC cadets to earn it. It was practically a week of boot camp. I put everything on, grabbed the keys off my dad's desk, careful not to wake him up. I unlocked the front door, ran outside, locked it, tossed the keys through the mail slot, and started hauling ass to school.

About half way to school, I ran past a shady looking person. He appeared to look injured. He was limping, and he was bleeding a little bit. He was also making a low grunting noise. I didn't have time to see if he was ok, because I was running late as it was. I got to the campus gates, and the first bell rand, meaning I had five minutes to get to class. I ran inside and was half way across campus when the minute bell sounded, signaling that I had one minute left before I was considered late. I bolted towards my classroom, and ran inside just, as the final bell sounded. It was chemistry class, and we had a sub. We watched an episode of Myth Busters on the Smart board, disproving a myth that you can split an arrow by shooting it with another arrow.

About 55 minutes later, the bell rang, signaling that it was time to go to my second hour class. I had English this hour, and I had an essay due, and I had forgotten to finish it, and I didn't feel like catching hell from the teachers for it, so I decided to take the long route around campus. I had heard the final bell ring, and I was already on the other side of campus, near the main gate. I heard some commotion come from over there, so I decided to check it out. Mrs. Lipert, the principle, and Mr. Parsons, the assistant principle, were out by the gate. A man kept bumping into it. This man looked very familiar. Then I realized that it was the same man I had passed earlier this morning. I was close enough to hear the conversation.

"What do you think you are doing?" Mrs. Lipert asked. "This is private property." The man kept bumping into the gate.

"I'll take care of it." said Mr. Parsons, and he started to unlock the gate so he could go outside and speak with the man. He grabbed Mr. Parsons' arm through the bars of the gate, and bit his wrist. Mr. Parsons dropped to the ground, screaming in agony. Then, after a few moments, he lied still. He was dead. I stood there, frozen. I could not move. Mrs. Lipert stood over him.

"That's impossible. He was fine just a minute ago. How could he die just from a bite?" She asked herself. His eyes opened, but they were blood shot. He slowly sat up.

"Oh thanks goodness. Are you ok?" She asked him. He grabbed her collar, and bit her in the neck. She screamed very loud, and then dropped dead. I finally gained control over my body again, and I ran towards my second hour class. I bolted through the door, slamming it open, and I staggered inside. I still couldn't believe what I had just witnessed.

"Chris, you couldn't be happy with just skipping my class?" My English teacher asked in frustration. I looked at Terrance and Justin.

Terrance was about 5'9", skinny, had medium length black hair, grey tank top, blue skinny jeans, and black Vans.

Justin was about 5'10", had long blonde hair, white tank top, faded blue ripped jeans, white tennis shoes, and a black bracelet with a white skull on it on his right wrist.

"We gotta get the fuck out of here." I said, trying to catch my breath.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Terrance asked.

""There was a commotion by the gate. Parsons got bit, and now the teachers are killing each other." I said.

"Are you serious" Justin asked.

"Yeah, I'm making shit like that up." I said, sarcastically. At that time, the intercom came to life.

"Attention students. We have a situation. There appears to be an infestation of zombies at our school. Follow your teacher's instructions, and exit campus quickly. This is NOT a drill...Wait...what are you doing…...get the fuck away from me...no... AAAGGGGHHHHHHHH!..." There was a very eerie silence filling the room. You could hear a pin drop. No one moved. No one even made a sound. Then, it was utter chaos. Students started piling out of the classrooms. They were pushing, screaming, fighting to get out of there. Me, Justin, and Terrance stayed behind.

"We have to find our friends." I said. "Let's check the lunch area." We headed out of the classroom, and it was pure Hell outside. People were eating each other, fights broke out to get off campus, it was brutal. We ran through the crowd of screaming students until we got to the lunch area where we usually sit. Tierny, Seth, Nick, and Brenda were there.

Tierny is about 5'8", skinny, has blue and green hair, a Deathnote shirt, blue jean-shorts, and black shoes. About two weeks ago, me and her shared a kiss. Everyone knows I still like her. And she used to like me.

Brenda is about 5'4", Mexican, has red hair, a black t-shirt, black pants, and black shoes. She is dating one of my best friends, Nick, who is also there with us.

Nick is my height, 314 pounds, has long, straight black hair, a white t-shirt, black pants, glasses, black shoes, and a black short-sleeve button-up shirt, which was unbuttoned.

Seth was about 5"11, black, has a purple t-shirt, black shoes, and blue jeans. He is a really good friend of mine. He is also dating Tierny. He has been since last week.

"What is the plan?" Tierny asked.

"We go to the auditorium. There is a tool shop in the back that has tools we can use for weapons. Then we split up, and search for survivors." I said. We ran to the auditorium, dodging the occasional hungry flesh-eating zombie. We got through the main door, and I dodged a nail that was being shot at me. Mr. Johnson fired at me again. He is a 450 pound black man, wearing a grey t-shirt, grey sweat pants, white socks, and sandals.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold your fire. We're on your side." I yelled, hiding behind an open door.

"Well, it's about damn time." He yelled from the stage. "I thought I was going to be stuck in here by myself."

We ran on to the stage, and went to the tool room. Me and Nick grabbed a nail gun, and the compressor. Seth grabbed the hoses, and a crow bar. Terrance, Tierny, and Brenda also grabbed crow bars. Justin grabbed a nail gun, the bucket of nails, masking tape, and another compressor hose. We ran to the stage, and attached two of the hoses to the compressor we brought out, and plugged them in. Nick taped the safety down on the three nail guns so we could shoot freely. We attached the two hoses to the nail guns, and loaded them with nails. Nick attached his hose to the compressor that Johnson already had out, attached his nail gun to it, and loaded it. Tierny and Terrance closed the big door behind them so the zombies wouldn't be able to ambush us from back stage. Me, Nick, and Justin took our position on opposite sides of the stage. We saw zombies start piling in. They are slow moving, but there were a bunch of them. They must've heard us start the compressor. They are loud to start. I took aim, and fired, dropping the first three zombies on my side. I looked over, and Nick and Justin were doing the same. Johnson was reloading. We were dropping zombies right and left for about half an hour before it started to get too overwhelming. And we were running low on ammo.

"We need to get out of here." I said.

"Ok. What is the plan?" Johnson asked me, shooting down a couple more zombies.

"How many people can fit in your truck?" I asked Johnson.

"Most of us can fit in the front, and whoever can't, will be able to fit in the bed of the truck." He said.

"Ok. The plan is to have two people open the back stage door, and the door leading outside. Me and Johnson will cover you until the doors are open. Then we book it to Johnson's truck, and get the hell out of Dodge." I said.

"Who do you want to open the doors?" Justin asked.

"You and Seth. You two are the tallest, other than me, but I will be covering your asses." I said, shooting zombies who approached the stage. I reloaded, then signaled them to open the doors. They ran to the door, and Nick, Tierny, Terrance, and Brenda followed, with crowbars in hand. Johnson covered the front of the stage, and as Justin and Seth opened the door, I shot zombies who were behind it. They got it opened, and I grabbed a crowbar from the tool room. They opened the other door, and then we hauled ass to Johnson's truck. They got in, and I realized that the gate was locked. I went over to it and used my crow bar to break the lock. Zombies started approaching the truck, so Seth decided to run the other way, and started hitting poles with his crow bar. The others didn't notice him doing that. The zombies followed the sound of the noise. Johnson started the truck, and I started to walk away from it.

"Come on Chris." Tierny pleaded. "Get in." I shook my head, and walked over to Johnson's door.

"Get everyone to my house. Terrance knows where I live. I am going to stay here and search for survivors. I will be there in a little bit. Keep everyone safe." I said, and then walked away. He nodded, and then started to drive away. Tierny jumped out of the back of the truck. No one else noticed, because they were facing the road. By the time I saw her, they were already off campus. I ran to her, and helped her up.

"What the hell are you doing?" I asked her. They were too far away for me to holler for them.

"I didn't want you to go alone." She said, giving me a hug.

"But I didn't want anyone else coming with me. I didn't even know if I was going to get out of here alive." I said.

"Well, it's a little late to turn back now. They are already down the street." She said. We started walking, and I heard a yell. We ran to it, and saw Seth being bitten in the arm by a Zombie. I clutched my crowbar, and smashed the zombie's head. It dropped, and me and Tierny rushed to Seth's side.

"Oh my god. Are you ok?" Tierny asked.

"I'll be fine." Seth said. He got up, but started spitting up blood.

"Apparently, it IS just like in the movies." He said, sitting down. "You get bitten, then that's it. Game over. It's only a matter of time before I change into one of them." He looked at me, and nodded his head. He mouthed "Kill me." then spit up more blood. I gripped my crowbar. I didn't want to do it.

"DO IT!" He yelled. "I don't want to be one of them!" I just stood there, frozen. He fell on his side, yelling in pain, then, after a few seconds, he lay still. His chest stopped rising and falling. He stopped breathing. He was dead. I stood there for a minute, with my head low.

"Get away from him, Tierny." I said

"No." She said. "He's not turning. He's NOT turning. He's going to be fine." She said, through her tears. Then, his eyes opened, and they were bloodshot. He slowly sat up.

"See, he's getting up, he's getting better…." She said. He stood up, and tried to grab her, but I stood her up, and pulled her back. I put her behind me, and gripped my crowbar.

"I know you can't hear me, old friend, but I'm sorry. I will miss you. I know you can't believe it. I can't even believe it, but it's happening." I said, walking towards him.

"Chris, don't do it." She pleaded. Seth came towards me, grabbing at me.

"IT'S HAPPENING!" I yelled, and I ran at Seth, with my crowbar raised. I brought it down, hard, on top of his head. Tierny started crying.

"How could you do that?" She asked, while holding his dead body.

"He was going to bite you if I hadn't." I said, wiping the blood off my crowbar.

"And I would've let him." She said. "Better that, than to do something like this."

"He wouldn't have wanted that." I said, sitting down, with my legs crossed.

"How do you know?" She asked. "Oh, I know why. Because you were jealous. Because he was dating me." She said. Those words hung there for a moment. They rattled around in my head, hurting, while they made their way to my heart. The truth is, I was a little jealous of him. I loved her at one point, and he just took her from me. I just didn't show it. I got up, and started walking away.

"Wait, where are you going?" She asked.

"You obviously don't want me around anymore." I said. "I'm just gonna go and smash 'em." She got up, and grabbed my arm.

"No, please don't go." She pleaded. "I didn't mean it. I really didn't mean it. So please, please don't leave me." It was quiet for about a minute. She didn't move. She was just staring at me, with her eyes full of tears. Then, I turned towards her, and gave her a long hug. At the end of the day, I had killed one of my best friends, and held the girl that I loved, for the first time in my life.

"What should we do now?" She asked.

"Let's look for more survivors." I said. She picked up my crowbar off of the ground, and handed it to me. I grabbed it from her, smiling.

"Thanks." I said.

We started walking towards the classrooms. We smashed about two dozen zombies, most of them fellow students, most of them I even knew personally. We finally got to the quads, and there was a crowd of zombies surrounding something. We walked over to them, and they heard us walking, and turned towards us. They were hovering over, and feeding, on some fat kid. He looked all mangled up. His insides were outside of his body, and all ripped up. He was still twitching. The poor bastard was literally being eaten alive. He was all bloody, and blood was still spouting from his chest area. He had only one eye left, and it had scratch marks on it. I gripped my crowbar, and swung at the closest zombie, connecting with its jaw. I knocked it down, and then swung at the next one. Tierny followed me, Dropping zombies right and left with her crowbar. We finally felled the zombies surrounding the badly mangled body, and it looked up at me. The poor bastard was still alive. He had been the whole time. I couldn't imagine a worse pain than suffering through being eaten alive. I gripped my crowbar hard, brought it up, and slammed it down hard on his head. I had put the poor bastard out of his misery.

At that moment, I heard shouting from the next building over. We decided to go check it out. We got over there, and we saw a couple people fending off some zombies. I ran towards them, swinging my crow bar, dropping zombies right and left. After we dropped the surrounding zombies, I realized who they were. It was my best friend, Tai, who was slaying zombies with a sword, and my other best friend, Dominique, who was using an aluminum bat he found on the baseball field.

Tai is 5'11", slim, has long black hair, an AC/DC: Back in Black T-shirt, blue ripped jeans, and black tennis shoes. She is carrying an old Samurai sword. Me and her are close. We also shared a kiss, but it was about three months ago.

Dominique is 6'3", about 2 inches taller than me. He is black, with a big afro. He is wearing a red button-up short sleeve shirt, with a dragon covering the front and back of it, black jeans, and white tennis shoes.

"Tai! Dominique! Boy, am I glad to see you two." I said, giving them both a hug. "Tai, what are you doing here? You graduated last year."

"I came to see you. I saw these zombies terrorizing the people in town, and I wanted to find you and make sure you were ok." She said, sheathing her sword.

"How bad is it outside?" I asked her.

"Worse than it is in here. Everywhere I turned, there were hoards of blood thirsty zombies." She said.

"That's impossible." I said. "Everything was fine a just a couple hours ago."

"I know, that's what I thought too, before I left my house." She said. "But I saw people eating each other about ten miles from home. I tried calling the police, but the answering machine picked up saying I'd either have to stay on the line, or call back later. The Phoenix police department was currently experiencing an extremely large call rating. I barely made it here without getting bitten. I had to kill my cousin, Katelyn. She had gotten bitten right outside the gate when we got here. There have been blood curling screams all over the city. The only reason I made it here when I did, is because I wasn't at my place. I was at a friend's house, just a couple miles up the road. Or else I'd still be on my way here. What's happened here so far? Any other survivors?" She had asked me.

"Yeah. About three, as far as I know. They are in a truck with the theater teacher, on their way to my house, which is where we are headed soon to regroup." I said. "I urge you two to come with us as well. But first, we need to go to the park." I said.

"Why?" Tai asked me.

"I have a feeling one of my friends needs our help." I said. "But first, let's do one last sweep of the school, to see if we can locate any other survivors."

"Ok, but it'll be more effective if we split up." She said. "We can cover twice the ground."

"You're right." I said. "Tai, you and Dominique cover the gyms, auditorium, and lunch area. Me and Tierny will cover the classroom areas, and sport fields. Let's meet back in the main parking lot in half an hour." I said.

"Ok, just be careful." She said, giving me a hug.

Me and Tierny started checking the classrooms. We approached the first set of classrooms, crowbars raised, waiting to strike at any waiting zombies. But the first few classrooms were empty. We went to the other side of the building, and there was a swarm of zombies heading towards us. We readied ourselves for them, and I was pulled into a classroom. I was relieved at first, thinking it was another student trying to help out. But then I sat up to see who it was, when I realized what pulled me in was a zombie. I reached for my crowbar, and slammed it through the left eye, and it started gushing blood. I pulled it out, and smashed it on the head of the zombie. It dropped like a sack of potatoes.

I went outside to Tierny smashing through the zombies, trying to get to the classroom I'm in. I gripped my crowbar, and started running at them, smashing through zombies right and left. I grabbed her, and we ran to the final set of classrooms. They were empty, except for the last classroom, which had about five people who I did not recognize, but they weren't zombies. They looked scared.

"Are you guys alright? Have any of you been bitten?" I asked

"No, we're fine. We've been hiding in this classroom the whole time, trying to wait this out." The tall blonde kid said. "But it seems the longer we wait, the worse it gets. Can you guys help us get out of here?" He asked me.

"Yeah." I Said. "That's why we're here. Our friends are already out." I said. "Us two and two other friends of mine are searching for survivors. You five are the only five we've come across. Come with us. There should be a bus with keys in the main parking lot. That's where we are regrouping." I said, opening the door. "Now, let's go."

They all got to the door, and there were zombies everywhere. But none of them seemed to pay any attention to us. So, we all ran for the parking lot. Tai and Dominique were already there when we got there.

"Tai, I think I found out more about these zombies." I said, as I was bent over catching my breath.

"What did you find out?" She asked.

"Well, I don't think they can see. I think the virus shut off that sense." I said.

"And what made you come to that conclusion?" She asked me with her head cocked to the side.

"Well, when we ran here, we weren't being chased.. They weren't really paying any attention to us." I said.

"Well, how should we test out that theory?" She asked. "I don't suppose anyone wants to go out and test that." There was a pause for about thirty or so seconds.

"I'll go." I said, setting down my crowbar, quietly. Tierny started walking towards me.

"But why?" She asked.

"I don't know." I said. Then I looked up, and smiled. "Seriously. I don't know." I walked over to the crowd of zombies.

"But-" Tierny started to say, but Tai grabbed her.

"Don't interfere. I think I understand, but it's a man's decision." She said, as she let go of Tierny's arm.

I walked to the center of the crowd of mindless, blood thirsty zombies. They didn't seem to pay any attention to me. They didn't seem to notice me at all. Then, I noticed one start in my direction. It walked slowly towards me. It opened its mouth as it got close to me. I started to sweat with fear. My hands started to shake a little bit. I could hear my heart beat five times faster than it normally should. It approached me, and walked right past me. Didn't even look in my direction when it did. "If they can't see me," I thought. "Then it could only mean one thing." I quietly picked up a thick, short stick, and flung it towards the building. It hit a pole near the building farthest from us, and it echoed, loudly. The zombies lifted their heads up for a second, then walked in the direction of the noise. "Their hearing ability has doubled." I thought.

When they were out of the parking lot, Tai and everyone else got on the bus. Me and Tierny stayed behind.

"Aren't you guys coming with?" Asked Tai.  
"We will catch up." I said. "We just need to go find someone. We will be there soon though. Dominique should know where I live."

She gave me a hug, then got in the driver's seat, and closed the door.

"Good luck." She said with a smile.

"You too." I said smiling back, then she closed the doors, and drove off. I looked around, and was in luck. There has a newer Harley sitting in the lot, with the keys in the ignition. The owner probably tried to escape, but got overpowered by zombies. I started it up, and got on the back. Tierny got on behind me, and put her arms around my waist. I raised the kickstand, and drove out of the lot. I drove in the direction of the park, not a zombie in sight. We approached the park, and I pulled into the parking lot, and saw John walking towards us. When he got to us, he greeted us with a half-smile.

John is my height, but skinny as hell. He has long black hair, camouflage sleeveless hoodie, jeans, and white tennis shoes. He is a Christian kid. Very religious, but still fun as hell to be around.

"You ok, old friend?" I asked.

"No." He said. "I just had to kill my family because they were bitten." I put my hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry bro." I said. "I had to kill many friends today. Even a couple really good friends, whom I saw get bitten. But we're headed to my place to regroup. You should come to. We need all the help we can get."

"Let me get my bike, and my guitar." He said. "I never leave without my guitar." He picked up his guitar from the park bench, and strapped it to his back, and got on his bike, and rode back over to us. We got back on the Harley, and I started it up.

"Let's go to the pawn shop first." I said. "They have weapons there. We can just load up on them, and go." I said. He nodded, and we took off. He wasn't having much trouble keeping up. We arrived at the pawn shop, and walked inside. I got only halfway through the door when I heard "click," it was the sound of the hammer being pulled back on a pistol.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." I said, putting Tierny and John behind me. "We're human."

A man popped out from behind the counter, holding a Desert Eagle. He placed it back in the holster he had on his side.

"Oh, I'm sorry." He said. "I thought you were one of them."

"It's fine" I said. "Listen, we need weapons, but we don't have any cash. Could you help us out?" I asked, letting John and Tierny inside.

"Yeah, I've got plenty of weapons. Load up what you need, but leave me some so I can protect myself here." He said. He tossed me a big duffle bag from behind the counter.

I looked around, and it was like being a little kid in a candy shop. There were guns all along the back wall, along with all the guns in the display case at the checkout counter. I opened up the duffle bag, and first put a few rifles in there. Then I grabbed the three Remington pump-action shotguns, and the ammo for them. Then, I looked in the case. There were about fifty handguns in this case. I grabbed ten nine millimeters, and put them in my backpack. Then I grabbed a shoulder holster, and strapped it on, and grabbed two hip holsters, and put them on my belt. I put a .45 pistol in both my hip holsters, and put a nine mil. in my shoulder holster, along with two extra clips. I put on my leather jacket over my shoulder holster. I then grabbed another .45, and a couple .44 magnums in the backpack, and put the backpack in the side bag of the Harley.

"Damn kid." The shop owner said to me. "Do you think you have enough guns?"

"Well, I have a big group of people, and they all need to be armed." I said, as I put the duffle bag on my back. I made Tierny get on, and I got on behind her. I didn't want her carrying the duffle bag, because it was too heavy.

"Hey Tierny. I need you to drive." I said.

"Ok." She said, getting on the Harley, and starting it up. I got behind her.

"Let's wait for John." I said. "He doesn't know where I live." About two minutes later, he came outside with a .45 on his right and left hip, and a dagger in the sheath on the front of his belt.

"Are you ready to go?" I asked him, over the sound of the motor. He nodded his head, and we took off towards my place.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

When we turned on my street, there were zombies everywhere. I unholstered both my .45's, and started firing away at the zombies directly in front of us. There were bodies dropping right and left. I ran out of ammo, so I reholstered them, and grabbed the 9 mil. from my shoulder holster. I shot down maybe half a dozen more before we got to my place. Everyone was outside, but they were surrounded. I shot a bullet between the eyes of a zombie grabbing my sister. My dad ran out of ammo for his shotgun he had, so he decided to use his cane as his weapon. I saw him swinging away at the zombies. He had dropped two, before one grabbed his cane, and grabbed him. It went to bite him, but at that time, I had jumped off the motorcycle, and had my pistol at its temple. I fired, and blood splattered everywhere. All over mine and my dad's shirt.

"Damn son." He said. "You sure took your sweet ass time getting here."

"Sorry dad." I said, setting down the duffle bag. "I got held up at the school. I actually had to kill one of my best friends, along with countless other students and teachers I knew. But, I brought a shit load weapons, courtesy of the pawn shop owner down the street."

"Sweet." He said, looking in the duffle bag. He pulled out the rifle with the scope, and the magazine that came with it. He put the clip in the rifle, and pointed it at the nearest zombie. He fired, and put a big ass hole in the center of its face. Everyone else ran over to me, and grabbed a gun out of the bag. I grabbed one of the shotguns, and loaded shells into it. It holds four shells at a time, so I put a handful in one of my side pockets as well. My sister's boyfriend, Logan, grabbed one of the other shotguns.

Logan is about 5'11", big, but not fat. He has a Mohawk, with the middle dyed blonde, and the sides dyed black. So, he pretty much looks like a skunk. He is wearing an oversized tan t-shirt with skulls on it, camouflage cargo shorts, and black and brown steel-toed work shoes.

"Thanks man." He said. "I thought we were going to be eaten alive.

My sister came over to me, and I gave her two nine mils. She took them, and started shooting at zombies. Me and Logan were back to back, blowing zombies' heads off two at a time.

"So, what's the plan?" He asked me, while he was reloading.

"We go to Wal-Mart."

"Why?" He asked.

"Because they have everything we need." I said. "Look, they have a really secure building, so we can stay there for a day or two, while we prepare our next move. Not to mention, they have food, means of cooking it, and beds. It's a good place to go while we prepare. Plus, they should also have ammo there we can stock up on, and supplies we can also stock up on. Just trust me on this. Just pretend I'm right on this"

"How are we all going to get there" He asked me, blowing heads off of more zombies, blood splattering everywhere.

"You guys take the bus." I said.

"What about you?" He asked.

"Me and Tierny won't be too far behind you. We gotta go meet up with a dear old friend of mine, and then we will be there." I said.

"Who?" He asked.

"Ben." I said. "Don't worry. He will be on bike, and me and Tierny will be riding on the Harley.

"Take my scooter." He said, pointing to the scooter on the sidewalk. "It's much faster than a bike."

"Thanks bro." I said, reloading.

"No problem." He said, blowing the head off of a zombie grabbing at me.

About ten minutes later, there were a lot of dead bodies littering the street. But everyone was ok. I ran inside, and grabbed one of Ian's swords that was hanging up in my room, and the cloth sheath that was on my dresser. I sheathed the sword, and put it on my back, then walked back outside.

"Ok, here's the plan." I said, putting the shotgun in the side pocket of the Harley. "Me and Tierny are going to drive over to Ben's place to pick him up. I want you guys to meet us over at Wal-Mart. That will be our place of regroup, and rest."

"Sounds like a good idea, son, but how do we get there?" My dad asked.

"Take the bus Tai drove here. And whoever doesn't fit, can ride with Mr. Johnson in his truck." I said. I walked over to the Harley, and started it up. Logan tossed Tierny the keys to his scooter, and she got on and started it up. She backed it onto the street, and pulled up next to me. Dad walked up to the Harley, and handed me his phone.

"If something happens, call Logan's phone." He said. I nodded, And me and Tierny headed from the driveway to the street. There was no traffic, which was odd. In a situation like this, especially in a town this size, you'd figure the streets would be worse than rush hour traffic. But there wasn't a car on the street the whole way to Ben's. It was way too quiet. But we got to Ben's, and there were dead bodies everywhere. I walked through the crowd of mangled bodies, seeing if any of them were my friend.

"What are you two doing here?" I heard from behind me. I turned around, and it was Ben, carrying a bamboo stick. It had blood on it, so it appeared to be the weapon used to kill all those dead zombies we found.

Ben is about 5'8", skinny, but muscular. He was a really good fighter, so it wasn't a shock that he killed all of them by himself with just a bamboo stick. He is wearing black dress shorts, white Jordans, just like mine, and a white wife beater.

"Are you ready to go?" I asked Ben, as Tierny got on the Harley behind me. "You're driving the scooter. It's faster than biking, and you can keep up with us."

"Ok." He said. "But let me grab my blue hat from inside." He said, going inside. He came out about ten seconds later. "I never go anywhere without it." He got on the scooter, started it up, and backed it up off of the kickstand.

We headed it in the direction of Wal-Mart. There wasn't a zombie in sight. We got about four blocks away from Wal-Mart, and I couldn't believe my eyes. The streets were filled with abandoned cars, some wrecked, some even overturned. There were even dead people being eaten alive inside the cars. There were zombies crowding around the cars, and I didn't think there was any other way around them except fighting our way through. I grabbed my .45's, reloaded them, and handed them to Tierny. I also gave her extra clips, also loaded. I grabbed one of the two shotguns in the side pocket of the Harley, and handed it to Ben, along with a handful of extra shells. I reloaded mine, and pocketed the rest of the ammo. I reloaded the 9 mil. on my chest, and reholstered it. I put the extra two clips in the clip cases on my holster. I pumped my shotgun, and fired at the zombie, knocking down three of them. They started walking slowly towards us. They were about thirty yards away. I pumped it again, and Ben joined me in firing into the crowd of zombies. I pumped again, and that's when Tierny joined my in firing. She was having a hard time firing both of them at the same time.

"You should use one at a time." I said. "Brace yourself for the recoil. Put your body into it, and stiffen up your arms a little bit, but keep your dominant arm bent a little bit. That should lessen the recoil, and keep it from jumping as much. Aim slightly lower than what you want to shoot. With the leftover recoil, you should hit what you are intending to hit." She holstered the other .45, and did what told her. It took a couple shots, but she quickly got into the hang of it. They were approaching faster than we were dropping them.

"Tierny, switch me weapons." I said. "You use the nine mil. and I'll use both the .45's. The shotgun takes too long to reload."

"Ok." She said, and she tossed me both the .45's, and the extra clips, and I tossed her the nine mil. and the extra clips to it. I pointed the .45's at the closest zombies, and put a bullet in their heads. But they were still coming faster than we were killing them. They may be slow moving, but there were a lot of them. I continued to shoot down approaching zombies. I unloaded the used clips, reloaded the new ones, and continued to shoot approaching zombies. It didn't take me long to run out of ammo, so I unsheathed the sword on my back, and prepared myself for running through them.

"GET DOWN!" I heard from behind me, and I saw two grenades fly over my head, and into the crowd of zombies. We ducked down behind nearby cars. *KA-BOOM* The grenades exploded, and shook the ground underneath us. Then, I saw the people I knew really well run from behind us, both carrying M-16s.

"James? Max?" I said.

James is my height, and has medium length poofy, dirty-blonde hair, and DOZD (Department of Zombie Defense) equipment on: Black pants, a black DOZD t-shirt , black bullet-proof DOZD vest, a light green canteen, binoculars, and black steel-toed combat boots. He also had a Desert Eagle on both hips. He used to date Tierny, but they broke up about seven months ago.

Max is about 5'9", has long, straight brown hair, and wearing the same equipment as James. He is dating my friend, Brenda. He is also part of DOZD. DOZD was established in Phoenix, AZ. It was intended to teach people to defend themselves against any situation. Nuclear warfare, terrorism, or even your basic muggings. It was just named DOZD as more of a fun name, because they also prepared you against a possible zombie outbreak. They just didn't prepare them as often, because they didn't think it was really going to happen. They classified it as possible, but highly improbable.

"What are you two doing here? I thought you two were dead."

"Why would you think that?" James asked me, as they fired into the crowd of zombies.

"Well, we searched the school for survivors, and all we found was Tai, my friend Dominique about half a dozen more students, and the theater teacher." I said.

"Tai?" He asked. "Where is she?" He and Tai are also really good friends.

"On her way to Wal-Mart with the rest of the survivors, which is where we are headed right now." I said, picking up the shotgun, and reloading it.

"Ok, here's the new plan-" James started to say, but I interrupted him

"No." I said. "There is no 'new plan'. You are not in charge. You are not our leader. Nobody is. There's no such thing. We just work together to survive."

"Ok." He said. "Mind if we join you, then?" He asked.

"Sure, go ahead. We need all the people we can get." I said.

Eventually, they ran out of ammo, and I ran out of shotgun shells. So, I picked up my sword, and Ben picked up his bamboo stick he brought from his house. We started running at the crowd of zombies, with Tierny, James, and Max close behind us. I was slicing through zombies left and right, and Ben was bashing through them without breaking a sweat. You have to admire the energy this kid has. We finally broke through the crowd, but there was a wall of cars in between us, and Wal-Mart, which was about three blocks away. Me and Ben climbed to the top of the cars, and we helped everyone else up. Max lost his footing, and his foot slipped, and kicked a zombie right in the face. The zombie grabbed his foot, and bit his ankle.

"AAAUUGGHHH." He yelled. " I've been bitten." We helped him up, and over to the other side. "Well, looks like I'm done for."

"No. You can't die." James said. "You're my best friend. We were supposed to survive this together."

"I know." Said Max. "Looks like I got too careless." He handed James the Desert Eagle from his hip. "Here, James." He said. "I want you to be the one to kill me."

"I don't think I can." James said, and he started to cry. Max gave him a hug.

"Listen. You can survive without me. I'm done for, but you can still make it. Just stick with them, and you will survive, together." Max said. "But you need to be the one to kill me. You are my best friend."

"Ok." James said, wiping his tears on his sleeve. "I'll do it."

"Right between the eyes." Max said. "The best way to do it. Good bye, old friend."

"Goodbye." James said. "I sure will miss you." He raised his gun to Max's head, about two feet away. His hand was shaky, so he put his other hand over it to stabilize his aim. Max smiled at him. James smiled back, and pulled the trigger. *BLAM* The gunshot echoed in the air. Max's lifeless body fell to the ground. James went over to him, knelt over him, and closed Max's eyes.

"I'm sorry, old friend." He whispered, then stood back up, and holstered his new weapon. I walked over to him, and put my hand on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry." I said. "It had to be done. If he were to be kept alive any longer, he would've been in a lot more pain, and would've suffered through it, then would've turned into one of them. But you have my condolences. He was my friend too." He nodded, and we started walking towards Wal-Mart.

"That car pile-up should hold them off for a little while." James said. "Long enough for us to set up there." We didn't have any other encounters with zombies on our way to Wal-Mart, oddly enough. The parking lot was practically empty except for a couple big rigs, there were two HUM-V's parked on the side, and two or three cars parked in front. Which meant that either there are already survivors inside, or these are left over from the poor bastards who couldn't make it out of here alive. We walked on the mat, and the electronic sliding glass doors slid open.

"That's going to be the first thing I take care of." I said. "When everyone's inside, I don't want the zombies to be able to step on the mats and come inside."

"What should we do then?" James asked. I handed Tierny my sword.

"I want you guys to split up, and search this place for any survivors." I said. "I will be right here, disarming the alarms, and disabling the sliding doors."

They walked away in separate directions, and I went right to work. I went over to the hardware department, and grabbed myself a tool kit. I grabbed a latter, and headed back to the first set of doors. I unscrewed the sensor from above the doors, and cut all the wires. I did the same to the alarm system. Then I went over to the other set of doors, and did the same thing. I finished with the third set of doors, and I heard a loud scream coming from the other side of the store. I loaded the last clip into one of my .45's, and ran in the direction of the scream. I got to where it was, and it was Tierny, who was being surrounded by zombies. I started shooting them, and they all started walking in my direction. I kept dropping zombies, until *click-click-click* my magazine was empty. There were still two more zombies heading my way.

"Chris, catch." Tierny yelled, tossing me my sword. I caught it, and chopped the closest zombie's head off. Then I sliced part of the other zombie's head off. They both fell at the same time.

"Are you ok?" I asked, giving her a hug.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said. At that time, my cell rang.

"Hello?" I said, answering it.

"Hey son." My dad said, on the other side.

"How are things going?" I asked.

"Not so good." He said. "We lost Johnson."

"What happened?" I asked.

"Well," He said. "We were driving the long road, because the short way to Wal-Mart was chaotic. There were zombies and upturned cars everywhere. We got half way to Wal-Mart, and a car sideswiped us, and Tai lost control of the bus. Johnson was driving behind us. We rolled, and Johnson's truck slammed into the underside of the bus. The truck was totaled. Everyone else was able to climb out of the truck except for him, since he's so big, and it practically crushed him inside. We tried to pry him out of there, but zombies started to swarm us from behind his truck, and he told us to leave him. We didn't want to, but he insisted. I told him I wouldn't leave him behind, and he pulled his gun out on me and said 'your kids need you, now go.' I nodded, and left. Chris, I'm sorry." There was a long pause.

"It's fine." I said. "Where are you guys now?"

"We are about a mile from Wal-Mart." He said. "We will be there in about half an hour. The roads look like hell."

"Ok." I said. "I want you to make sure everyone gets here safely. I have to go and finish preparing this place, and enhancing the security. Give me a call when you get close."

"Ok son." He said. "I love you."

"I love you too, dad." I said, hanging up.

I went over to the side shops, and started unscrewing the screws holding up the gates. James was watching me.

"What are you doing?" He asked me, with his head cocked to the side.

"I'm taking down the gates to the side shops."

"Why?" He asked.

"I'm going to put them up on both sides of the sliding glass doors." I said. "Because if the zombies come here, the weight of them combined will definitely be too much for the doors, and they will shatter. This will reinforce them. It won't hold them indefinitely, but it will hold them long enough. But if I put a gate on both sides of the doors, it will guarantee them not being able to come in."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" He asked.

"Yeah." I said. "Go and get a latter, another tool kit, and get the other gates. There are three sets of doors, so I need six gates. I will be putting three of them up outside, so I need you to put the other three up inside."

"Ok, let me go get the tools, and I'll be right over." He said, walking away towards the hardware department. I finished taking the gate down, and got two others down before he got back. He came back with a full shopping cart.

"What is all this?" I asked, climbing down off the latter.

I grabbed two drills, two extension cords, a box of screws, and a latter." He said. "Because I highly doubt we can put screws through these walls with just a screwdriver. I also grabbed two sets of drill bits, so we can drill the holes."

"Good thinking." I said. "Now, get the other three gates down, and start putting them up. But first, please help me take these three out the side door. But, we need something to hold it open. It locks automatically."

He left, and came back with a bucket of paint.

"Is this heavy enough?" He asked.

"It's perfect." I said. "Now, unload from the cart what you'll be using, and I'll get the gates together." I walked away, and started piling up the three gates, so we didn't have to make too many trips. I could just go back in afterwards, and grab the cart of stuff I'll be using, and the latter. I finished piling up the gates, and he came over to help me. They were heavier than I thought, but we managed, with a little effort, to fit them through the side door, and we set them out front.

"Now, can you help me put one at each set of doors?" I asked. "If I drag them, it'll make too much noise, and we might be heard." We set them down at the first set of doors, then set one down and went over to the middle set, then took the last one to the last set of doors.

"Anything else before I take the other three down, and put them over the doors?" He asked.

"Yeah, one more thing." I said. "Help me bring the tools out. If we both do it, it'll only take one trip. But if I bring the cart, it would make too much noise, and the last thing I want, is to be overrun."

"Wait a minute." He said. "Won't you drilling make noise?"

"Yeah, but not as much." I said. We walked inside, and I grabbed the drill kit, and the drill bits, and pocketed some screws. He grabbed the extension cord, and latter. I placed the latter at one part of the door, and drilled holes about a foot apart. Then I did the same to the other side of the doors. At that time, Ben came outside.

"Would you like some help?" He asked. "I don't think you can hold the gate steady, and drill while you're on the latter.

I scratched my head. "Yeah, I didn't think that far ahead." I said, laughing. "Thanks." He put the Phillips head drill bit in the drill, and handed it to me. He held up the gate, and I started screwing the screws in. When I finished, we did the same to the other gates. Me on the latter, and him holding the gate when I was ready. I saw Tierny doing the same for James inside. It wasn't until we were almost done with the third gate, that my phone rang. I set down the drill, and answered the phone.

"Hello?"

"We are almost there. We're about two blocks away but we need you to hurry up. There is a big ass horde of zombies heading our way." I'm gonna let you go, but we will see you soon." He said, and hung up the phone. I finished drilling, and Ben helped bring the tools inside. James was starting on the second gate when we got inside.

"Ben, we need to do the other gate, and do it fast." I said

"Why, what happened?" He asked.

"They're about two blocks away, and they said a horde of zombies is heading this way." I said. "Dammit. All this drilling must've echoed, and alerted them." He set the up latter, and I plugged in the drill. I drilled the holes, and he held up the gate, as I screwed the screws in.

"What do we do?" James asked. "We don't know how long these gates will last. They're screwed in good, but I don't think they can handle the weight of all those zombies pressing against them."

"Does this Wal-Mart have a gun department?" I asked.

"Yes." Ben replied.

"James, go with Ben." I said. "Fill up two carts with all the guns and ammunition you can. I will stay here, and keep a lookout for them."

"Ok, will do." James said, and he and Ben both grabbed a cart, and raced over to the gun department.

"Tierny." I said.

"Yes, Chris?" She asked, coming over to me.

"I need you to go and make sure all metal doors and emergency doors are closed and secure."

"Ok." She said. She kissed me, and ran to check the doors. At this time, I saw my dad, and everyone else at the other end of the parking lot. I ran over to the emergency exit. Replaced the paint bucket in the doorway, and ran over to greet them. Justin was limping. More so than my father, who uses a cane. Justin had his arms over Ian, and Logan, who were helping him walk.

"What happened to you?" I asked.

"I was in the front seat with Johnson." He said. "It took your dad, Dominique, Ian, and Logan's strength to pry the passenger door. It smashed on my leg, but not enough to break it. It just hurts like a bitch. Me, Brenda, and Terrance were almost stuck in there indefinitely."

"Can you walk on your own?" I asked.

"Yeah, but it hurts to." He said. "But I will try."

"Can you still fire a weapon?" I asked.

"Hell yeah." He said. "Dude, I'm not dead. I can still function." We got back to the building, and there was a problem. The side door was closed. The bucket was not there. I started to freak out.

"What the fuck?!" I said. "That was our only way inside. How are we going to get inside now?"

"Why is it closed?" Dad asked me, trying to open it.

"I told Tierny to close and secure all metal doors, and side doors." I said. "I failed to tell her I was going to meet you guys, and there was no other way inside."

"I have her cell number." Brenda said, pulling out her phone. "I can just call her, and have her answer the phone."

I saw the zombies at the street on the other side of the parking lot.

"No need." I said, pulling out dad's phone. "I'll call Ben" I dialed his number, and it rang a couple times.

"Hello?" He said.

"Hey, it's Chris." I said. "I need you to open the side door we came out of. It's locked, and they're here. I got locked outside, and there is a big ass horde of zombies approaching the parking lot, so hurry."

"Ok." He said. "I'm on my way." He hung up, and I put the phone back in my pocket. About a minute later, the door opened. Logan and Ian helped Justin inside, and the rest of us followed. I closed the door when I was sure everyone was inside.

"Ok." I said, leading them over to the middle set of doors. "There are two carts of guns here. Me, Tierny, Tai, Nick, and Dominique will man the middle set. Dad, you take Elisa, Ian, John, and Logan to the left set. Brenda, you, Justin, Terrance, and James take the right side. Take a rifle, and a hand gun as your secondary. Everybody, take a box of ammo for both your guns. What we should do, is have two people at each gate shoot at a time. When they need to reload, the next group shoots. That way, there will be people shooting at all times. Now, everyone take your weapons, and man your stations." I said. I grabbed a rifle from one of the carts, and grabbed two .45's. I loaded all three, and grabbed two boxes of .45 ammo and a box of ammo for my rifle. I holstered both .45's. Tierny, Tai, and Dominique grabbed their weapons, loaded them, and grabbed their ammo, and followed me. Everyone else did the same, and went to their doors. Me and Tierny were the first two up at our gate. The zombies were about 50 yards away now.

"Ok." I yelled. "Fire on my signal." I readied my rifle. "Ready, aim," I looked over at Tierny, and she kissed me. "FIRE!" I yelled, and I started firing at the crowd of zombies.

Glass shattered all over the floor, and bullets started filling the air. Zombies started falling fast left and right. Soon, we ran out of ammo, and we ducked down to reload. The second group then took over. Me and Tierny reloaded our weapons quickly, and were ready for our turn to fire. Soon, they ran out, and we were up. There were a lot of dead corpses, all bloodied up, covering the parking lot. But, they were coming faster than we were killing them. Every time we shot down a zombie, another one took its place. After about six rounds of shooting, we were out of ammunition for our rifles, and had to switch to our handguns. I only used one at a time, because there was only limited space for me to shoot through. If it were more of an open area, I would've used both. We kept dropping zombies by the dozen, but it seemed like there was an endless run of them. We ran out of ammunition after about twenty minutes of shooting, and there were still about fifty or so zombies out there, still heading in our direction. I grabbed my sword, and headed for the door. Tierny and Tai came after me.

"What do you think you're doing?" Tai asked.

"I'm going to kill the rest of them , so they can't get in." I said. "I'm sorry, but I have to. To keep everyone here safe."

"Ok, but we're coming with you." Tierny said, and her and Tai picked up their crowbars.

"But I don't want you girls to get hurt." I said. "I don't think I could live with myself if either of you two got bitten.

"Chris." Tai said. "Whether you like it or not, the world you once knew and loved is gone. We are all a part of this, and, like it or not, all of us have to fight to survive. So, this chivalries bullshit won't cut it anymore. Now, please get out of the way. We have zombies to kill." She and Tierny headed for the door. I followed close behind them. It was true. I still couldn't believe it, but the world it knew IS over. I didn't want to believe it, but I had to face facts. I had to step up, and try to show that I wasn't scared. But I was only kidding myself. The truth was, I was scared shitless. You'd have to be a fool, or mentally ill, to not be. Because even one bite, and you're one of the mindless, bloodthirsty corpses, stumbling around, mindlessly feeding on innocent people. It could happen at any time, and we all had to be prepared. But, most of all, I was scared of losing the people close to me, like Dad, Elisa, Tai, Dominique, Ben, and Tierny. If anything happened to them, because I failed to act, I couldn't live with myself. So yeah, I tried acting like a leader, even though I wasn't one. In this, there is no leader. Only those who work together to survive. Because with leaders, comes corruption. And I didn't want that. So, I readied my sword, and headed out the door.

Tierny to my right, Tai to my left. We readied ourselves. They got about twenty yards away, and we charged them, with our stance low, so we wouldn't get bitten. We sliced through rather quickly, making as much noise as possible to lure them away from the building. Tierny and Tai drug their crowbars on the ground, making this high-pitch grinding noise, which seemed to get their attention. When we got about forty yards away, then we prepared ourselves for another sweep. We lowered our stance, and ran, slicing through the crowd. There were about ten left, and we dealt with them individually, which was piece of cake. I looked down, and my whole jacket and front of my pants, were stained in blood. Same with Tierny and Tai. We walked back to the building, slowly, exhausted. We walked back, arm in arm. When we got to the side door, Dominique held it open.

"Y'all alright?" My dad asked, walking over to us.

"Yeah." I said. "We just need a new change of clothes."

"Well, y'all might want to go over to the clothing department and get changed. It's not like it's stealing, since the people who worked here are probably zombies by now."

"Yeah, you're probably right. I'll be back in a few minutes." I said, and headed over to the clothing department.

I saw a pair of camouflage cargo pants I liked. I grabbed them, a black tank top, and a black cloth belt. I also went over to the shoes, and grabbed a pair of combat boots, and a pack of green boot socks. I figured that it'll be a while before we get to the next checkpoint area, and we'll probably be on foot most of the time. Combat boots last longer than regular shoes. I went to the dressing room, and got the blood-soaked clothes off, and put on the clean, new clothes. The belt was a little small, so after I got dressed, I went back over to the belts, and grabbed a bigger one. I put it on, and walked back to where everyone else was.

"I don't know about y'all, but I'm tired as all hell." I said. At that time, my father and Logan came over to us with a cart. It had two bottles of Crown Royal, two bottles of Smirnoff, four bottles of Pepsi, and eight cans of red Monster.

"So, I assume you don't want to drink with us?" Logan asked, unloading the drinks.

"Well, if you put it that way, I guess I'll stay up for a little while." I said. "But, don't we need glasses first?"

"Oh yeah." Dad said. "I knew we forgot something."

"I'll go get them." I said, grabbing the cart. "I'll be right back." I went to the dish section and grabbed three boxes of rocks glasses. They had five rocks glasses per box. I put them in the cart, and walked back. I opened the boxes, and handed everyone a glass. Dad, Tai, Dominique, Nick, Justin, Brenda, Tierny, James, and John had Crown Royal with Pepsi. Dad poured their drinks, and Logan poured ours. The rest of us had Smirnoff with Monster. Before we started drinking, I went over to the food department, and grabbed three bags of fried chicken from behind the counter. They were already cooked, and still warm from earlier. I came back, and set down the bags.

"Alright, dig in." I said.

"Yeah, because you definitely slaved over a hot stove to cook this, right?" Dad said, laughing, as they grabbed their food. After dinner, we all were a little tipsy, but not drunk. We only had about two drinks each, and we only went through one bottle of Smirnoff, one bottle of Crown Royal, two Pepsis, and four monsters. We were only just getting started. Hell, if the world was coming to an end, we might as well have one last party together before we face it. But, little did I know, this would be the last night all of us would ever be together again


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

"So, what's the plan now?" Dad asked, as he opened the other bottle of Crown Royal, and poured his drink.

"Well, the day after tomorrow, I want to head over to Illinois. I said." I want to see if any of our friends and family survived."

"That's great, but not all of us have friends and family there." James said.

"That's why I said 'I'm' wanting to go." I said, opening the other bottle of Smirnoff, and another monster. "I am going alone."

"That's out of the question." Dad said.

"Dad, I am 18 years old." I said, pouring my drink. "When are you going to treat me like an adult? We are all going to have to step up, if we want to survive this thing. And this is me stepping up. I can do this; you just have to trust me."

"I do trust you, I just don't want to lose you to these things." He said.

"You won't, I promise you." I said, sipping my drink.

"Are you going alone?" He asked.

"No, I'm going." Tai said.

"Count me in, too." Dominique said, raising his glass.

"You better not leave me behind" Said Tierny.

"I can't take too many people. I said, downing the rest of my drink, and pouring another. "I only want to take one vehicle, and not too many people can fit in it, with the supplies I'm taking."

"Then who's going?" Tai asked, handing me her glass. I refilled it, and handed it back.

"I'm driving." I said. "I want Ben to come with. Tierny, I also want you to go. Tai and Dominique are also going. That's all I'm going to be able to take."

"What vehicle are you taking?" Dad asked.

"One of the HUM-V's." I said. "One of them is bound to still have the keys inside."

"Where in Illinois are you going?" Dad asked.

"All around." I said. "There's friends and family all over. But I'm also scouting out for survivors. I'll help them get some sort of defense system set up, and help transport survivors while I'm there. In this kind of war, it can't be every man for himself. If it were, then no one would survive long. Besides. Everyone needs all the help they can get. Can you guys keep this place as a safe haven for all survivors? It's big enough, and there should be enough food to last for a while."

"Yeah, I guess we could do that, but what can we do?" He asked. "We don't have a vehicle."

"Use the vehicles in the parking lot" I said. "And you can set up a radio frequency to get everybody's attention. I believe that this can't be stopped, but it can be slowed if we can get as many survivors as we can safe."

"You are acting like you can control shit." Elisa said. "Believe it or not, you may be an adult, but you are acting like a child who knows his zombie movies. This isn't a movie, and this definitely isn't a fucking video game. This is real life."

"Elisa Ann. "Dad said. "He is right. We need all the help we can get. Believe it or not, he's grown up. He is trying to step up, and help more than just himself. I figured you of all people would see that."

"I guess, but I just don't want my little brother to get hurt is all." She said.

"I'll bring back mom, and our brothers." I said.

"If you're heading up to Illinois, go to Oklahoma first," Dad said. "Secure the family there as well, and make sure you go through Davidson to pick up Mom and David."

"That was my original plan. "I said. "I'm going through Davidson, to Nowata, and setting up a safe building somewhere a round there. It's a small town, so there shouldn't be too many zombies around there yet." I don't want to set them up in the bigger cities, because of the large numbers of people. Most of them are probably zombies by now, so it's probably a bad idea. I'll try to take the back roads, so we won't run into as many of them as I would on the main roads. And Elisa, I am an adult. Not because of the number, because it's just a damn number. What makes me an adult, is that I am trying to help everyone else. Because, like I said, everyone needs each other, and I am trying to help give people hope. I may be one person, but if you get one wheel turning, it usually helps get others turning."

"So, what are we doing tomorrow?" Ben asked, trying to change the subject.

"Packing." I said, sitting back down. "We need to pack enough supplies for the trip, and maybe a little extra if we run into any survivors on the way to Oklahoma."

"What do we need to pack?" Tai asked.

"Food, for one." I said. "Food that doesn't have to be eaten right away, so no meat. Probably canned goods, rice, water, and powdered drink mix. Get enough clothes to last us until we get to Oklahoma. It should be only a two day trip, but plan for a three day, just in case. Also, grab two sets of the best walkie-talkies you can get, and the biggest packet of spare batteries. We can't always be able to rely of cell towers, so those will come in handy. I also want you to make a first aid kit. Get gauze, band-aides, wraps, alcohol, peroxide, and whatever else you think we need. Grab flashlights, and whatever else you think we absolutely need to survive. Because if the HUM-V breaks down, we need to be able to get to our destination on foot. If there's room, pack four sleeping bags. I also need there to be enough room for two five gallon gas cans, in case we run out of gas, and there's no gas station around."

"Do you think everything will fit?" Tierny asked. "It seems like a lot of stuff."

"The HUM-V's out there have three rows of seats, plus an extra two to three feet in the back." I said. "I'll put the stuff in the back, that way the back seats can fit any survivors we pick up. Plus, it'll be extra room to sleep in come nighttime."

"Why don't we leave tomorrow?" Dominique asked.

"We don't have anything packed, or else we would." I said.

"Me and Dominique will get started right now." Tai said, finishing her drink, and standing up. She helped Dominique after he finished his drink.

"Do you think we will be well enough to drive tomorrow?" I asked. "Most of us are bound to be hung over."

"Since when do you ever get hung over?" Dad asked. "You've drunk more than this on a few occasions, and never once got 'hung over'."

"True." I said, smiling. "Alright, I'll help you guys pack. I'll take care of the food, Tai, you take care of the first aide stuff, Ben, you grab the survival stuff. Grab whatever you think we absolutely need. Tierny, you can grab yours and Tai's clothes, Dominique, you grab mine, yours, and Ben's clothes. Grab enough for three days. We leave by noon tomorrow. "

"How far are we going tomorrow before we bed down for the night?" Ben asked.

"I want to at least be out of state tomorrow night.

"When should we be in Oklahoma?" Tai asked.

"We need to be there by Friday." I said. "The sooner, the better, because I don't know how badly their situation is.

"How long are we going to be there?" Ben asked.

"We will be in Oklahoma for a little while." I said. "We're going to be there until we have a secure building set up for survivors, and a radio frequency. We are next headed to Illinois to do the same. Tai has a phone, so I will keep y'all posted daily."

"Seems like you know what you're doing." Dad said. "Do you think you can handle it?"

"Definitely." I said. "I just need you to trust me to."

"I trust you fully." He said. "I think you're ready to go out and do your own thing. I just want you to be careful."

"I will." I said. "I have really good people watching my back. You are only going to advance in life if you have good friends to back you up. If you don't, you are alone in the world. Now, we need to pack, so I will leave you guys to your drinking. We will be back shortly." I said, and we went off to do our packing.

I grabbed a cart, and went to the food section. I filled it with about thirty cans of canned fruits and vegetables. I then went over to the drink section, and grabbed two cases of 24 water bottles, and two boxes of 24 single lemonade drink mixes. I grabbed a can opener, and plastic forks from the kitchenware department. I also went over to the gun department to see if there was anything left. There were still some rifles left, and plenty of handguns. There was still a shit load of ammunition left that wasn't grabbed. I grabbed three boxes of .45 ammunition, six boxes of 9 mil. ammunition, two boxes of 12 gauge shotgun shells, and 6 boxes of rifle ammunition. I left the guns, because ours are up front, and they can use these here for any survivors that come here. I went back to the front, and Tai, Dominique, and Tierny were already there. We went through the side exit, to the HUM-V. It was open, and I searched the front seat for a spare key. Sure enough, there was a spare key in the center consol. We packed everything in the back of the truck. The food went in first, then the first aid stuff, then the clothes and sleeping bags. We put the extra ammunition in the glove box, and center consol. I closed the door, and we walked back inside.

"So, are you guys all set?" Dad asked.

"Yeah, we're all set." I said. "I'm just going to go lay down. I'm tired. It's been a long day, and we have an even longer day tomorrow."

"Alright, I'll see you in the morning." He said.

"Yes, you will." I said. I walked over to the bedding shelf, and grabbed a bed set. I took the pillow and blanket, and grabbed another pillow off the shelf, and went to find a bed. I picked a Pillow-top king, and lay down. Tierny followed behind me. I laid down, and she lay down next to me. She laid her head on my arm, and went right to sleep. She was tired too. I don't blame her. I covered up, and felt my eyelids start to get heavy. I soon fell asleep, too.

I woke up what seemed like hours later, and Tierny wasn't there. I figured she was already up with everyone else. I got up, and decided to go for a walk. I went to the front, and it was still pitch black outside, the same as when I went to sleep.

"That's odd." I thought." I figured it was later than that." I turned back around, and there was blood all over the floor. "What the hell happened here?" I walked around, and there were no bodies to explain the blood. "It can't be what I think it is…." I walked throughout the store, and there was no one. I started to freak out. "Where the hell is everyone? I found myself saying. I finally saw people in the distance, near the rear end of the store. I walked over to them, and they had their back turned. "Are you guys ok?" I asked. They turned around, and I almost had a heart attack. It was my friends and family I brought here. They were all bloody, with scars all over their body, and open wounds. They had all been bitten by zombies.

"Look what you did to us." Tai said.

"You went to sleep, and left us to die." Tierny said. "You were supposed to protect us, and you failed. How could you do this to your own family? Your own friends? Because of you, we were all over run by zombies."

"We died, because you failed to act." Logan said "You failed to lead. This is all your fault."

"NO! This can't be true." I said, and started to cry. "I tried my best to keep you guys safe.

"You did a piss-poor job of it." Dad said.

"I'm….I'm sorry." I said, crying.

"Sorry isn't gonna bring us back to life." Elisa said. "You failed to act. It should've been you who should be dead."

"We are going to save you the trouble." Ben said, and they started walking towards me, blood trickling the floor. I couldn't move. It was like I was paralyzed with fear. Fear and guilt. They were right. I failed to act. I fell asleep, and they got over run. They advanced towards me, and I was finally able to move, and I ran in the opposite direction. I got to the other end, and I couldn't get out. I forgot that we put the gates up. I turned around to run to the side door, and they were right behind me. Tierny grabbed my head, and bit and opened her mouth. Her eyes were bloodshot. And her mouth was bloody. I tried to get away, but I was surrounded. She bit my neck, and everyone else started biting be. I jolted myself awake. Tierny shot up with me.

"What's wrong?" She asked, wiping her eyes. "Are you ok?"

"Bad dream. I'm fine." I said, catching my breath.

"What was it about?" She asked, scooting over next to me.

"I don't want to talk about it." I said.

"Please tell me..." She pleaded, hugging my arm. "You can tell me anything."

"I dreamt that I lost you guys." I said. "That I woke up, and you guys were already turned. And the worst part of it was that it was my fault, because I fell asleep, and didn't protect you. You guys were saying that it was all my fault, because I failed to lead." She turned my head towards to me, and kissed me.

"Listen to me." She said. "I'm not going anywhere. Neither is anyone else, for that matter. I promise you that." She kissed me again. "Now, let's go back to sleep. We have a long day tomorrow, and we need our rest. Especially you, because you're doing the first few hours of driving." I laid down, and she laid her head on my chest, with her arm around me. I put my arm around her, and we fell asleep. Little did I know, this was the last night, for a long time, that was going to be this peaceful.

The next morning, I woke up, and Tierny was still asleep. I got up quietly, trying not to wake her up. I walked over to the clothing department, and grabbed a black sleeveless shirt, and a pair of Wrangler jeans.I changed my clothes, strapped up my boots, and walked to the front of the store. Tai was already over there, looking out the window.

"How did you sleep?" She asked, giving me a hug.

"I slept fine." I said. "How about you?"

"Ok." She said. "Are you rested enough for our trip?"

"Yeah." I said. "I'm going to wake everyone else up in a few minutes, after I have a cup of coffee." We walked to the McDonalds, and I made us both a cup of coffee. At that time, Dad, Logan, and Elisa came behind me.

"What about us?" Dad asked, jokingly. "Don't we get any coffee too?"

"Coming right up." I said. We all stood in the McDonalds kitchen, drinking our coffee.

"What time are you planning on leaving?" Elisa asked.

"Here in about an hour, after I get the others up." I said.

"Why so early?" Logan asked.

"Because I want to get there as soon as possible." I said. "And the sooner we leave, the sooner we'll get there."

"Do you have everything packed up?" Dad asked.

"Yep." I said. "We packed it all last night." I finished my coffee, and threw the cup away. "I'm going to wake them up now, so they can get ready for the trip." I walked to where Dominique and Ben were sleeping. Dominique was on a king bed, Ben was on a queen.

"Wake up guys. You need to get dressed, and ready to leave." I said.

"What time is it?" Ben asked.

"11:00 AM." I said. "Come on. There's coffee in the McDonalds to wake y'all up." They both shot up at the sound of "coffee." I giggled.

"Well, if you put it that way," Dominique said, getting out of bed. "I guess we'll get up."

"Good." I said. "Go get dressed, I'll go wake Tierny up." I walked away, and they walked to the clothing isles. I got to mine and Tierny's bed, and I leaned in, and kissed her cheek.

"Hey, wake up." I said, quietly. She rolled over, and kissed me.

"Good morning." She said. "What time is it?"

"11:05 AM." I said. "We need to get ready to go soon. There's coffee in the McDonalds kitchen." She sat up, and got out of bed. She gave me a hug, and went to get some coffee. I walked back to the kitchen with her. "After you get your coffee, I need you to get ready. We leave at noon."

"Ok." She said, pouring herself a cup. I went back to the bed area, and lied on my stomach, and started doing push-ups. "If I plan to survive this, I need to get in better shape." I thought to myself, as I pumped out about 50 push-ups. I flipped to my back, and pumped out 50 crunches. When I got back up, at that time, Tierny came back over.

"I'm going to get dressed, then I'll be ready." She said, and walked to the clothing isle. She came back about 10 minutes later, wearing ripped jeans, and a black tank top.

"Are we ready to go?" She asked.

"Yeah, let's go and get Tai, Dominique, and Ben." I said. We walked over to the front, and they were already dressed and ready to go.

""Took your sweet ass time, did you?" Tai asked, jokingly.

"Yep." I said. "Is everybody ready?"

"Yep." Ben said. "We're just waiting on you. I walked over, and gave my dad and sister a hug. Then I gave her boyfriend one. He's a good friend of mine.

"You make sure you protect her." I said. "If anything happens to her, I will feed your ass to the zombies."

"Don't worry." He said. "I'll protect her." I picked up my sword, and strapped it to my back. I then went to the emergency door, and opened it, and led the others out. I closed it, and we headed to the HUM-V. We got in, and buckled up. I started the vehicle up, and turned the radio on. I turned it to a country station. There was a GPS on the dash board, so I punched in the address to my grandparent's house in Oklahoma, and I drove out of the parking lot.

"Can we stop at the nearest gas station to grab a drink?" Tai asked. "I'm thirsty."

"Yeah." I said. "We need to fill up on gas anyways." I found a gas station about three blocks up the road, and pulled into the parking lot next to the gas pump.

"Do you think the gas still runs? Tierny asked.

"Yeah." I said. "All gas stations have about three weeks supply of gas to last until the next refill. All we have to worry about is if the electricity is still on. If not, we can't pump the gas" I unbuckled my seatbelt, turned off the vehicle, and got out. I grabbed my sword from the center consol. "What do you guys want to drink?" I asked through the open window.

"I'll take a Coke." Tai said

"Me too." Dominique said.

"I'll have a Sprite." Tierny said.

"I'll go for a diet Mountain Dew." Ben said.

"Why diet?" I asked.

"I'm trying to stay in shape." He said.

"Just go with a regular fucking soda, dude. You are already in damn good shape as it is." I said, and walked to the building. I opened the door, and there was nobody at the register. I grabbed a Sprite, a Pepsi, a Mountain Dew, and three Cokes from the fridge. I went behind the counter, and there was a zombie feeding on the cashier, who was already dead. I unsheathed my sword, and sliced its head off. It got blood all over the floor, and a little on my pants. I then walked to the register, and turned on the pump. I walked back out, pumped the gas, which took a long ass time, then gave everyone their drinks, and started up the HUM-V.

I noticed someone running with a little girl towards the store. The father appeared to be in his mid-thirties, slim, dark haired, and about 6 feet tall. The little girl appeared to be about eight or nine, had medium length blonde hair, wearing jeans, and a pink and purple striped shirt. She was only about 4 and a half feet tall. He was bleeding badly from his left arm where it looked like a chunk was taken out of. The little girl appeared to be fine. Behind them, however, was a large crowd of zombies, moving slowly towards the gas station. The father dropped, and was coughing up blood. The little girl went over to him, and knelt down next to him.

"Daddy, daddy, are you alright?" She asked, frightened.

"I want you to run." He said. "Run as far away from here as you can. Don't stop running until you are sure there are no zombies around."

"No daddy!" She yelled, with tears in her eyes. "I don't want to be alone. I want to stay with you forever."

At that moment, there were zombies approaching her, and her father started coughing bad, and then he was dead. At this point, the zombies were about ten yards away from the little girl. I grabbed my rifle out of the back seat, and loaded it quickly.

"I thought you didn't want to get involved." Tai said, grabbing her rifle and loading it. Everyone else did the same.

"But it's a little girl we're talking about here." I said, opening my door.

"You go get her, we'll cover you. But you better move like you got a fucking purpose" She said, getting out of the vehicle, and shot the zombies approaching her. I ran towards her, shooting down the zombies that were close to her. I was about twenty yards away from her when I ran out of ammunition. I dropped my rifle, and unsheathed my sword. I charged towards the zombies, and sliced off the heads of the two closest to her. I picked her up, and ran back to the HUM-V. I set her down next to it, grabbed another rifle out of the HUM-V, and loaded it.

"Are you alright, little girl? Are you hurt?" I asked, taking aim. I shot down the two that were getting close to the HUM-V.

"No." She said, crying. "But my daddy…."

"I'm sorry, but your daddy's gone." I said, kneeling next to her. "But he wanted you to go somewhere safe, so we're taking you with us to safety. We'll protect you, I promise." I put her in the back seat of the HUM-V, and closed the door. I shot the zombies that were approaching the vehicle, and got in the driver's seat. Tai and everyone else got back in, and I drove us out of there.

"What's your name, little girl?" Tai asked.

"My name's Alice." She said, wiping her eyes.

"Well, Alice, I'm Tai, the one who saved you is Chris, the one sitting in the passenger seat is Tierny, the one next to me is Ben, and the person sitting next to him is Dominique. I promise you, you are safe with us." Tai said, with a smile.

"I'm a little tired." Alice said. "I'm just gonna go to sleep for a little bit." And she laid down in the back seat, rolled over, and went to sleep. Tai put one of the sleeping bags over her to cover her up.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4

I must have been driving for about five hours before I started getting tired. Everybody else was already asleep. So, I decided to pull off into a rest stop, and I turned the HUM-V off, and I went to sleep. It was about two hours later that I was jolted awake. It was Tai who was trying to wake me up. She was outside, and so was everyone else, except for Alice, who was crying in the back seat.

"Chris, get up. We have a situation outside." She said.

I grabbed my rifle that was sitting on the center console, reloaded it, and got out of the car. We were surrounded by zombies. I got on top of the jeep, and it seemed like there was no end to them, however it was too dark to see very far. It had to be about two or three in the morning. I just took aim at the closest one, and fired a round between its eyes. It dropped, and was replaced with the one behind it. The crowd was too packed to just run through, and too large to drive through.

"Shit!" I said, dropping two more zombies, and the ones behind them took their place. "There's no end to this." I just kept firing at the zombies approaching the vehicle. Everyone else did the same. Tierny climbed on top of the HUM-V with me, and she saw what I saw.

"Is there a way to get through them?" She asked, firing her rifle into the crowd of zombies, dropping two more, and they were replaced quickly.

"I don't know." I said. "It's too dark to see, and too many of them to try it." I ran out of ammo, and ejected the clip, and replaced it with another one. I shot two who were pressing against the side of the HUM-V. Tierny went to kneel down, and he slipped off, and fell, and rolled about 15 feet away, and there were zombies approaching her, fast.

"TIERNY!" I yelled, shooting a couple of the zombies approaching her.

I jumped off the HUM-V, and Tai was right next to me.

"I'll cover you, you go get the girl." She said, firing at the zombies close to her. Tierny tried to get up, but she was having trouble. I dropped my rifle, and unsheathed the sword on my back. I chopped the heap off of a zombie close to her, and sliced through a couple more before I got to her. I drug her away, and picked her up in my arms, running back to the HUM-V. I set her down inside, and closed the door. I picked up my rifle, which was almost empty, and continued firing, dropping about five more before it was completely empty. Tai ran out of ammo soon after. So did Ben and Dominique. I unsheathed my sword, and Tai did the same. I looked back at Dominique and Ben.

"Dominique." I said. "I need you to get in the driver's seat, and drive everyone to our destination, and you go with him too, Ben. Make sure you get everyone there safely. The address is already programmed into the GPS."

"What about you?" Ben asked.

"We'll be on the road as soon as we can." Tai said. "We will lure the zombies away from here, and find a vehicle that will take us there."

"I'll call you when we get on the road." I said. Dominique nodded, and got in the driver's seat. Ben got in the passenger seat.

"No!" Tierny yelled from the back seat. "Don't leave without him."

"Be careful guys." Dominique said, through the open window.

"You too." I said, and faced the crowd of zombies.

"Are you ready for this?" I asked Tai. "They're approaching fast."

"Yeah." She said. "Just try to keep up." She said with a smile. I smiled back, and we charged the crowd of blood thirsty zombies.

We kept our heads low, as we ran through the gaps in between the zombies, dropping the ones that got in our way. I looked over to her, and tai looked like she was enjoying it. I don't think people our age should enjoy killing people. Honestly, I don't think we should have to. We're too damn young. Most of these kids' childhoods were taken away from them because of this damn virus. They had to grow up fast, and learn to fend for themselves by killing people. We kept slicing through the zombies until we got to the outside. We sheathed our swords, and picked up sticks on the other side of the parking lot, and started banging them against poles, which echoed through the air. Only a few of them were heading our way.

"THIS WAY MOTHERFUCKERS!" I yelled as I banged my stick on the pole. More started walking our way. I heard Dominique start up the HUM-V, and he smashed through the remaining zombies in front of them, and drove off.

"At least they made it out safely." I said.

"Yeah, but now, we're stranded here, and there seems to be no vehicles around." She said, looking around.

"Well, we should probably look at the GPS on my phone to at least see where we're at." I said, pulling my phone out of my pocket. I clicked on the GPS icon, and it showed our exact position.

"We are currently in Flagstaff." I said.

"So, we aren't even out of Arizona yet." She said, disappointed.

"No." I said. "And we probably won't be for quite a while if we're on foot.

"Well, how far to the nearest city?" She asked.

"About 50 miles away." I said, checking out my phone. "But there's a gas station about ten miles up the road. We can stop there to see if there are any abandoned vehicles there. But right now, we need to get out of here." I said, pointing to the crowd of zombies that were coming towards us from where our friends were.

We started running down the highway, not knowing exactly where we were going. All we saw were the street lights that were about 50 yards apart from each other, which gave off very little light. All we saw was the road directly in front of us. We ran for about five miles before we ran out of breath, and I stopped to catch mine. She stopped, bending over next to me.

"You ok?" She asked.

"Yeah." I said, standing back up. "Let's just walk the rest of it."

We walked for about four more miles before we saw, off in the distance, a faint light, too bright to be a street light.

"Do you think that's it?" She asked.

"It has to be." I said. "It's the only building around for miles." We got to it, and there were vehicles parked in the parking lot. There were two pickup trucks, a car, and a motorcycle. We went inside, but there was no one there. I walked over and grabbed myself a coke from the freezer, and tossed her one as well. I opened it, and took a drink. She did the same. To get something to drink felt good. We hadn't had anything for the past few hours.

"How long do you think it would take for us to catch up with our friends?" Tai asked through sips.

"I don't know." I said. "I don't even know how far they have gone since we saw them last. I told Dominique to go straight to the destination in the GPS."

"Well, we need to get on the road soon, but I'm tired as hell." She said, yawning."

"I am too." I said. "But how can we sleep out in the open when the zombies could ambush anytime and eat us?" I asked.

"Let's sleep in the bathroom, then." She said. "The employee room is locked, so we can sleep in the bathroom and close the door."

"Alright, but we have nothing to sleep on." I said. "They have the sleeping gear with them in the HUM-V."

"That's fine." She said. "I can sleep on the floor."

She walked to the bathroom, and I followed her. I laid down with my arms behind my head, and she came in and closed the door behind her. She laid down with her head on my stomach.

"Are you comfortable?" I asked her.

"Mhm." She said, and fell asleep. I laid awake for about another hour, thinking about the situation we're in. Even though we've been through so much together, it still seemed like a dream. It feels like I could wake up any moment, and be at home, ready to go to school tomorrow. I slowly started drifting off to sleep. I had the same dream as before, except this time, it was at the gas station, and it was only Tai who had been turned.

I woke up, and checked the time on my phone. It said 8:45 AM. I looked over at Tai, who was curled up in a ball over by the wall.

"Tai." I said. "You need to wake up. We need to get on the road." She slowly sat up, and grabbed her sword from the floor, and strapped it to her back. I did the same, and I helped her up. I opened the door, and there were people inside. I drew my sword, and one of them turned around. It was an older man, about mid-sixties, graying hair, a little shorter than me, wielding a .45 on his hip, and a 30.06 on his back.

"Whoa there, junior." He said, putting his hands up. "Don't cut yourself with that thing."

I didn't like the attitude of this guy. Besides, who is he calling "junior"?

"The names Chris." I said, sheathing my sword. "And don't treat me like a child. I've done some shit in the past couple days that would send most people straight to hell."

"How old are you, kid?" He asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"I'm 18 years old, and my friend here is 19." I said, pointing to Tai.

"Aren't you a little young to be wielding such weapons?" He asked, pointing to the .45's on my hip.

"And aren't you a little old to be using a 30.06?" I asked. "The recoil might break your shoulder, old man."

"Listen, boy-" He started to say.

"No, you listen, old man." I said, pointing my finger at him." At this point, I was very annoyed. "I don't know who the fuck you think you are, but I have no business dealing with a cocky son of a bitch like you. We've been through so much shit over the past three days, and you waltzing in here acting like you are better than me, and acting like I'm some incompetent piece of shit, isn't helping the situation any. So why don't you back up out of my face, and we'll leave, and put this whole stupid situation behind us. What say you?" I said, starting to walk away.

"You talk awful big for someone barely out of diapers." He said. I stopped, dead in my tracks. My hand went for the .45 on my right hip, but Tai grabbed my arm.

"Chris, don't do it." She said, looking back at the old man. "He's not worth it."

"Yeah, little man." He said, with a smirk on his face. "Listen to the skirt. You don't want to do something you'll regret." That was enough to piss her off. She unsheathed her sword, and put it to the man's throat.

"What the fuck did you just call me?" She asked, with her face close to his. At this point, the other guys that were with him took notice, and started reaching for their weapons, but I unholstered my other .45, and pointed them both at them.

"Don't even think about it." I said. "I have no problem putting a bullet between someone's eyes right now."

"You wouldn't kill us, would you?" One of them asked, bringing his hand away from his pistol. "You're just a kid. You wouldn't want something like that on your conscience, would you?"

"Do you know how many people I've killed in the past three days?" I asked. "Hundreds. Most of them I've gone to school with for two years. Most of them were even my friends. And I had to kill them all, because of this stupid virus. So don't think I'd lose any more sleep over blowing the head off some low life trying to bully me and my best friend over here. This world has no place for that anymore. We're supposed to all be working together in a situation like this, not fighting each other."

I reholstered my .45. The younger man pulled out a 9mm, and shot right past me. I turned around, and there was about 50 or so zombies crowding outside. I unholstered my .45's, and backed to the back of the room with the other guys. Tai had pulled away her sword from the man's throat, and joined me in the back. All she had was her sword, so I handed her one of my .45's.

"How did they find us?" She asked. "I thought they can't see."

"They can't." I said. "But we were yelling kinda loud, so they just followed the noise."

I fired my weapon at the zombies walking through the door. The other guys unholstered their weapons, and fired into the crowd of zombies. The old man took the 30.06 from his back, and put it to his shoulder, and fired at the zombies approaching the store, dropping about four of them. After about seven more rounds, I was out of ammo. Tai was already out, and unsheathed her sword, ready for a fight. I did the same. The guys behind me were reloading their weapons, and continued firing into the crowd. The old man ran out of rifle ammo, and unholstered his .45, and fired it into the crowd of zombies. But after a while, he, too, ran out of ammo. He pulled out a K-Bar out of the sheath on his belt. A Ka-Bar is a combat knife the Marine Corps uses. There weren't many zombies left outside, but they were still coming inside. I ran towards the doorway, and stabbed one through the throat, and sliced its head off. I kicked its lifeless body out the door, knocking down a couple zombies behind it. Tai ran out the door, and sliced through a couple zombies on her way out. I walked towards her, and saw the K-Bar whip past my face. I turned my head, and saw what it hit. A zombie dropped about two feet away from me, and I didn't even see him coming. I turned back towards the gas station, and the old man was putting his arm down. He was the one who threw it, and saved my ass from getting bit. That was the last zombie around, so I sheathed my bloody sword, and grabbed the Ka-Bar from the head of the lifeless zombie, and walked back inside.

"Not bad for an old man." I said, smirking. I gave him back his knife, and he sheathed it. "I'm assuming you were in the Marines?"

"Vietnam veteran in the Marine Corps." He said. "I was a grunt for about four years towards the end of the war, then I got injured, and got discharged."

"What happened?" I asked.

"I was in charge of about five people." He said, sitting on the check-out counter. "Our mission was to infiltrate a warehouse where they were manufacturing weapons, and take it over. The streets were an empty wasteland. No people around, very few cars, and it was quiet. Too damn quiet if you ask me. We were walking past a pickup, when it blew up. The damn bastards knew we were coming, and were already ready for us. It blew me into the side of another car about twenty yards away. The last thing I saw before I passed out, was my best friend being blown to bits. He was the one closest to the truck. I was close, but not close enough to have that happen to me. I was in and out of consciousness when one of my men was pulling me to safety. The other two were covering us, with guns raised. One was shot in the head from a sniper, and the other one was shot god knows how many times by an AK-47. The guy who was pulling me pulled me behind another pickup, and radioed in for backup, as we were taking fire. We got a response back that they were about twenty minutes away. Me and him, I'll never forget his name, Sergeant Sanchez, tried to hold our position until air support showed up. All we had were the M-16's we were carrying, one extra clip, and a desert eagle for a backup weapon. After about fifteen minutes, the guy who saved me tried to go to a different vehicle, and got shot down. The only reason I got out alive, is because about five minutes later, a bomber jet flew right over me, and shot a missile through the warehouse, and turned that building into a pile of scrap metal and toothpicks. A chopper showed up five minutes later, and picked me up, and took me out of there. When I was taken back to the states, they took me to the hospital on base at Camp Lejeune, and found out I had shrapnel in my back, and running up and down the left side of my body. They took as much as they could out of my body. But when they found out that I no longer could walk around without a cane, I was medically discharged. I retired a Corporal. I was around 22 at the time of my discharge, and about three years later, I was slowly starting to regain the ability to walk without a cane. And by the time I healed up, it was too late to try and re-enlist."

"I'm sorry about earlier, man." I said.

"I am too." He said, looking at Tai. "I'm just not used to people your age taking responsibility. Most of them I've seen don't take this seriously, and go out looking for zombies to kill like it's some kind of game, until they get bitten, and turn into one themselves."

"Well, we're on a mission to get to Oklahoma, and we're planning on using the motorcycle out there to get there." I said, pointing to the motorcycle sitting out in the parking lot.

"Well, I hope you find your way." He said.

"I do too." I said, getting on the motorcycle. Tai got on behind me, and I started it up.

"Semper Fi." I said, pulling out of the parking lot.

"Oohrah." I heard him say back.

The motorcycle we're using is not as good as the one we had back in Phoenix. The one we had was a 2013 Harley. This looked like a 2005 Yamaha. But at least it would get us to where we were going. It's not as fast, though. We drove for about three hours before we had to stop again to refuel on gas. It's a good thing no one works there now, because I'm flat broke, and can't afford it. This one's a pump first, pay later gas station, so I just filled up the tank, and we were on our way again. Surprisingly, there were no vehicles on the highway. In a situation like this, you'd figure it would be worse than rush hour traffic trying to get to a safe area. But what surprised me more, was that there weren't many zombies roaming the highway, either.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5

We finally got into Texas when we ran out of gas again. Except this time, there wasn't a gas station in sight. The motorcycle finally sputtered to a stop, and it was on foot from there. Thankfully, there was a rest station about 30 yards up the road. I was tired, and needed a nap. Since this all started, I haven't slept well at all.

"Let's stop to rest, Tai." I said. "I'm tired."

"Alright." She said. "We should stop for a few hours, and continue on when it's darker."

"But the flashlights are in the HUM-V." I said. "Which is probably already in Oklahoma by now."

The rest area had two parking lots. One on either side of the bathrooms. I went to the men's room, needing to take a piss, thinking that there would be no one in there. But I opened the door, and two zombies fell on top of me. And there were about ten more still in there. One of the zombies on top of me was standing up, and the other one was trying to bite me. I held my hand on its forehead to keep it from biting me. Tai saw me, and was running to where I was, drawing her sword. The other zombies were walking out of the bathroom towards me, and the one who just stood up grabbed my legs, and bent over to try to bite me, when all of a sudden *BLAM BLAM BLAM*

"GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM MY BOYFRIEND, YOU UNDEAD FREAKS!" I looked up, and it was Tierny and my friends. She shot the one at my feet between the eyes, and I tossed the one on top of me over my head, and jumped up. Ben tossed me a 9mm, and I turned around and shot the ones coming out of the bathroom. Then I turned around and shot the one who was picking itself off of the floor. I holstered my weapon, and Tierny jumped in my arms. She kissed me repeatedly on the cheek, and I kissed her on the lips.

"Boy, am I glad to see you guys." I said, putting Tierny down. "What are y'all doing here? I thought you were all in Oklahoma by now."

"We were going to Oklahoma." Dominique said. "But about halfway through Texas, we decided to slow down to let y'all catch up with us. We even made a few stops to let you guys catch up, but we started getting worried. We called your phone all day, but it was off, so Ben had this idea of tracking it with his phone. He typed in your number, and was able to get a GPS signal on your phone, and that's what led us here. I think we arrived just in time."

"Well, I'm glad you guys showed up when you did." I said. "One second later, and Tai would have one more zombie to worry about." Tierny nudged my arm.

"That's not funny, Chris." She said. "I almost lost you." She started crying. I wrapped my arms around her.

"You're not going to lose me." I said. "You can't get rid of me that easy. Besides, I made a promise to everyone that I would get everyone, including me, to our destination safely." I wiped the tears from Tierny's eyes, and kissed her.

"Hey love-birds!" Ben yelled. "I don't know about you guys, but I want to get back on the road as soon as possible."

"Do you guys still have the gas cans in the back of the HUM-V?" I asked.

"Yeah." Tierny said. "Why?"

"I'm going to fill the motorcycle me and Tai rode over here with, and drive that." I went to the HUM-V, and Alice jumped out of the vehicle, and gave me a hug.

"Hey little one." I said, hugging her. "How are you doing?"

"I'm ok." She said. "Are you and Tai ok?" She asked.

"Yeah, we're fine." I said.

"Thanks for saving me." She said. "Daddy would've thanked you too, but he's not here.

"You're welcome, little one." I said, smiling at her.

"Are you riding with us?" She asked.

"No, I'm taking a motorcycle, but I need some gas from the back of the vehicle to fill it up." I said, pointing to the back of the HUM-V.

"But, I thought you were coming with us." She said, sounding upset.

"Little one, I am coming with you guys." I said, trying to reassure her. "I'll just be riding next to you, instead of in the vehicle. I promised I'd protect you from those bad zombies, and that's just what I'm going to do."

Pinky promise?" She asked, holding out her little pinky.

"Pinky promise." I said, wrapping my pinky around hers, then I stood back up, helped her back into the HUM-V, closed her door, and grabbed one of the gas cans out of the back. I went over to the motorcycle, and filled it up with gas. I put the gas can back in the HUM-V, closed the door, and went over to my friends.

"Are we ready to go? I asked.

"Yeah." Dominique said. "Are you taking the motorcycle?"

"Yeah." I said. "I'll ride ahead of you guys. I know how to get there from here." I said.

Dominique, Ben, and Tierny went back to the HUM-V, and I went to the motorcycle, got on, and started it up. Tai got on behind me. I saw them get into the HUM-V, and Tierny looked back at us. She saw that Tai was on the back of the motorcycle with me, and she looked pissed. She just turned away, got in, and slammed the door. Tai put her arms around my waist, and we took off onto the highway. I looked behind me, and they pulled out behind us, and we were off to Oklahoma. I knew it was going to be a long road between here in where my grandparents are at. We were still in the south-west part of Texas. We needed to be in the south-west part of Oklahoma. It was still another five to six hour drive. We drove until the sun started going down before I decided to pull off into a rest stop for the night. I pulled in, and parked the motorcycle. They parked next to me and got out. Me and Tai got off the motorcycle, and I put the kickstand down. I walked over to them, and Tierny wouldn't even look at me. I had no idea what was wrong with her.

"Baby, what's wrong?" I asked, stepping in front of her. She turned around, and looked the other direction.

"Why don't you ask her?" She said, pointing at Tai. "She had her hands all over you on the way here. Maybe you would like to date her instead of me." Now I was getting irritated. There was nothing going on between me and Tai. She's my best friend, and Tierny's my girlfriend.

"Babe, there's nothing going on between us. She's been my best friend for about two years now. We haven't seen each other since prom this year, and I figured it would be ok if she rode with me, so we could talk." Tai walked over to me and Tierny.

"If you're that insecure about me and Chris, then maybe you should go find a different boyfriend." Tai told her.

"Excuse me?" Tierny asked, getting in Tai's face.

"You better back up out of my face before something bad happens to you." Tai said, calmly.

"Who the hell do you think you are?" Tierny asked.

"I happen to be his best friend." Tai said. The funny thing is that Tai towers over Tierny by about 5 inches.

"Yeah, well I happen to be his girlfriend." Tierny said.

"So?" Tai said, getting annoyed. "You are acting like a bitch. He and I are just friends. If you have a problem with that, you need to find yourself another man."

Tierny took a swing at Tai, but she already saw it coming. She grabbed her arm, turned her around, and pushed her to the ground.

"You are making a big mistake." Tai said to her, surprisingly calm.

Tierny got back up, and balled her fists.

"You don't want to do this." Tai said, handing me her sword. "Trust me."

Tierny said nothing. She just circled around Tai, looking for an opening. I just stood there. Part of me wanted to stop them, but another part of me told me that it wasn't my place. Sure enough, Tierny swung again, ant Tai side-stepped her, and pushed her to the ground. She got back up quickly, and swung at Tai again. This time, Tai grabbed her fist, and open-palmed hit Tierny in the sternum. Tierny fell to one knee, gasping for air.

"I told you that you didn't want to do that." She turned her back, and walked back towards me to reclaim her sword.

Tierny staggered back to her feet, and ran towards Tai. Tai heard her coming, so she quickly turned back around, and caught Tierny by the throat.

"Now you pissed me off." She said, and lifted her up, and choke slammed her on the gravel. She stood over Tierny, who was just lying there, in and out of consciousness.

"Now, are we done?" Tai asked her. Tierny just nodded. "Good." Tai said, and walked back to me, and I handed her sword back to her, and she strapped it to her back. Tierny slowly got up, and just walked past me, without even looking in my direction.

"We're done." She said to me, without even looking at me."

"Ok." I said. I was still trying to comprehend what the hell just happened. Tierny just went into the women's restroom, and closed the door.

"Did…I miss something?" I asked, scratching my head.

"Nope." Tai said, going back to the Hum-V, and helped Alice out of it.

"Is everything ok?" Alice asked her, wide-eyed. "I saw you guys fighting."

"Yes dear." Tai said, with a half-smile. "Everything's fine now. We just had a…..disagreement."

I went to the Hum-V, and grabbed one of the gas tanks from the back. I went over to where the motorcycle was, filled it up, and put the gas can back in the Hum-V. Tai and Alice went to the restroom to bed down for the night. When they went in, Tierny went out, and came over to the Hum-V.

"Is everything ok?" I asked her after I closed the door.

"I'm not sleeping in there with her." She said, pointing to the restroom. "I refuse."

"Then where are you gonna sleep?" I asked her.

"Out here in the Hum-V." She said, pointing to the vehicle behind me.

"Ok." I said, starting to walk away, but she grabbed my hand.

"Won't you join me?" She asked. I grabbed a sleeping bag from the back.

"No." I said, walking away. She grabbed my arm.

"Why not, baby?"

"You said we are done." I said, pulling away. I walked back to the Men's room, and went inside. There was blood everywhere. I drug the remaining dead bodies outside, and wiped up the blood on the floor so we had a place to sleep. As it reached nightfall, I was starting to get hungry. And awfully tired. I went outside to one of the vending machines, and smashed the glass. Everyone else walked over to me, and we grabbed what we were gonna eat. The guys went into the men's room to bed down, and the girls went to the women's room. Me and Tai were the only two that stayed outside.

"What's on your mind?" I asked her,

"Just this damn situation." She said, turning towards me. "None of these kids are even old enough to drive yet, and they have to fight for their lives to survive? I wanna meet the person who started all of this, and put a bullet between their eyes." I noticed her starting to cry. I drew her in, and wrapped my arms around her, and she put her head on my shoulder.

"It's ok," i said, rubbing her back.

"This just sucks." She said. "I lost my family to this damn virus, and now, i'm all alone."

"You're not alone, I said, looking at her teary face, and wiping her eyes. "I'm here, and that's not gonna change."

She just looked into my eyes. We inched closer together, and in a few seconds, we were less than an inch from each others face. We closed our eyes, drew closer, and our lips gently met. We broke apart for a few seconds, then she kissed me hard, and i kissed her back, putting my hand on the side of her face, and i felt my worries, my fears, everything around me just melt away. It was just me and her. We kissed for a few more seconds, then we slowed down, and slowly started to break away. I gently brushed her cheek with the hand that was still on it. She smiled, and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes.

"We should probably get to bed now." She said, giggling."

"Yeah, it's getting late." I said. "We have another long day of driving ahead of us tomorrow."

We walked back to the restrooms, hands in hand. When we got there, we stopped and faced each other. We kissed again, then we parted into separate rest rooms. I went in with a big grin on my face. I laid down in my sleeping bag, put my hands behind my head, and just laid there for a couple hours, still grinning like an idiot. Then, slowly, i felt myself drift off to sleep.


End file.
